ARRETON MANOR

The pleasant lanes and roads around Arreton are well known by the holiday makers and local alike for their peace and tranquillity. Arreton Valley hosts one of the finest examples of English Manor houses. Arreton Manor is an early Jacobean Manor steeped in history and dates back to as early as 872. Once owned by Edward the Confessor as noted in the Doomsday Book and is specifically mentioned in the Will of King Alfred the Great in 885. The Manor was farmed by the abbots of Quarr Abbey and for over 400 years was in their possession. In the reign of Henry VIII came the dissolution of the monasteries and the manor came into the hands of the Crown.

Count Slade de Pomeroy was once the owner of the manor and it is recorded that he often woke to the sound of tapping on the door to his bedroom. He is reported to have said that he had ignored it as if he opened the door there would be nothing there.

But one time he did in fact open the door and was shoved back by unseen hands, his housekeeper who was there at the time, said that she had seen two monks enter the room and one of them had pushed him from the doorway, they then disappeared.

Many years later a guest at the Manor who had no idea of these sightings noticed a small room leading from a landing, opposite was another larger room. The visitor had an uncomfortable feeling and she turned pale and became disorientated so much that she could no longer stay. She said to the House keeper that a sense of foreboding had overwhelmed her and also had the feeling of being watched.

James and Thomas who were the two older brothers of Mrs Barnaby Leigh once fought a duel to determine which one of them would inherit the property. One of the brothers was killed and three days later the other brother died from wounds he had received. The title to Arreton Manor did lie with Barnaby Leigh during the reign of Elizabeth 1st. It is also recorded that when he lay on his death bed his son John smothered him with a pillow so as to gain the inheritance. But on looking up after doing this dastardly deed, John, noticed Annabel, his younger sister standing there watching, and in his panic he dragged her upstairs and threw her to her from the highest window. It is said that there is an area in the room that is permanently cold and the ghost of little Annabel is often seen and heard in the grounds of the manor. It is said that her voice can still be heard calling out "Mamma, Mamma".

The house is often open to the public and on occasions there have been reports of a sighting and one particular time a little girl told her mother she had been trying to make friends with a girl in blue but she disappeared through a brick wall.

During more recent times people working in the house have reported ghostly noises comming from empty rooms. Guests have reported seeing monks in the house and in the Manor grounds .Lights have also been seen in windows at night when the house has been empty.